Wednesday, 24 December 2014

Our
new house has emerged from the “total chaos” stage of unpacking to the far more
acceptable “annoyingly disordered”. I think this is progress and it felt
a good time to get back to some baking, particularly with Christmas fast approaching.
I’d been cooking dinners every night so felt confident that I understood my new
oven enough to tackle a new recipe, totally ignoring Mr CC’s recommendation of
baking something I knew inside out like a Victoria sponge. I could see
his logic but I fancied something that reflected the festive season, and what
could be more festive than After Eight mints?

Now
don’t get me wrong; I like After Eight mints, I truly do. But would I
like them half as much if they didn’t each come snugly filed away in their own
little paper sleeve like chocolate records? (Translation for anyone under 40:
Records were the iTunes of their day but took up actual rather than virtual
storage space and only held about 12 tracks at most). And is there
another chocolate with greater rules of etiquette? Only a complete
bounder takes the chocolate out and leaves the paper sleeve in the box, leaving
some poor unfortunate sap to ‘draw a blank’.
This ganache uses a whole box of chocolates:

And
here they are melted:

This
is a rich, decadent cake and would work as either a cake or a dessert. If
I was serving it as a dessert I might have some extra whipped cream to serve
alongside because everyone knows that it cuts through richness….right?
Work with me here, it is Christmas after all…the time of year when all bets are
off and it’s perfectly acceptable to drink alcohol before 9am and eat tons of
chocolate straight after the biggest meal of the year whilst complaining how
full you feel(or at
least it is if you’re doing right).

Thanks
for everyone who’s stopped by my site this year, and extra thanks to those of
you who have left such lovely comments. Hope you all get the Christmas you wish for and a wonderful 2015!

Sunday, 30 November 2014

This week I needed something that was quick to make and
would keep nicely in a tin for several days.
We are in the final throes of boxing everything up for moving and this
is my last bake in our current home. I
have mixed feelings about leaving; on the one hand this is the kitchen my blog
started in and it’s the only oven I have ever seriously baked in. On the other hand...hello big kitchen, range
cooker and more counter space than I could dream of!

You can’t go wrong with an oat biscuit. If ever I needed a slogan that would be
it. When they’re crisp they’re great,
when they age and go a bit flapjack-y they’re great. I love the smell, the substantial texture and
the way the vanilla just pops against them and makes the flavour almost creamy.

Due to my kitchen being in boxes this will be my last blog
post for a couple of weeks. I’m aiming
to be back before Christmas with at least one seasonal bake but for now this is
The Caked Crusader, over and out! See
you on the other side!

Sunday, 23 November 2014

It
was some time ago that I ate the “best cake ever” (in my opinion). It was a ‘maronischnitte’ from Café Sacher in Salzburg;
a creamy chestnut delight. My thoughts turned to it recently and I
decided to take elements of it for my birthday cake…or birthday tart as it
became.

Last
weekend Mr CC and I had a spiritual experience: we visited Whole Foods on
Kensington High Street. Never before have we so wanted to dislike a shop
yet fallen in love with it so quickly. I was convinced it would be
overpriced hydroponic mung beans being sold to yummy mummies but it wasn’t; it
was glorious. I could’ve spent a grotesque amount of money but limited
myself to what I could hold in my hands, which turned out to be a pot of
couverture chocolate, a pot of red onion and horseradish stuffing, and three
bars of chocolate. Not to be used in the same dish, I’m sure you’ll
appreciate.

I
used my couverture in the making of the ganache. Apart from the pebble
shaped pieces looking professional in the pan I didn’t honestly notice much
difference in the way it handled. It may have melted a bit quicker, and for
milk chocolate had a very strong rich cocoa taste but nothing really stood out
as different.

For
the chestnut element I used a tin of Clement Faugier chestnut spread as it was
sweet and had vanilla added to it. Ok, and I love the tin it comes
in. The tin has a lot of ribbing to it and a really busy, vintage-y design;
I particularly love the fuzzy looking chestnuts.

A biscuit
base (I wasn’t in the mood for pastry), chocolate ganache, sweet chestnuts and lashings of whipped cream. Happy birthday to me!

Ingredients

For the biscuit base:
200g biscuits – hobnobs, digestives or shortbreads will all work
100g unsalted butter
1 tablespoon golden syrup or honey

Place the biscuits,
butter and golden syrup in a food processor and blitz until you have moist
crumbs. If you don’t have a food processor, place the biscuits in a bag
and beat to crumbs with a rolling pin. Then put in a bowl and add the
butter (melted) and golden syrup.

Press the crumbs into a
23cm round loose bottomed tart tin (I used a disposable foil tin as we’re in
the process of packing up the house for moving – it did make it harder to get
out, so use a loose bottomed tin if you can). Alternatively, you could use
a 36cm x 12cm rectangular loose bottomed tart tin.

Refrigerate for at least
an hour.

Now make the filling:
Place the cream in a saucepan and add the vanilla.

Bring the cream to up to
boiling point, without actually letting it boil, and then remove from the heat.

Break up the chocolate
and add to the cream.

Let it stand for a
couple of minutes before going in with your whisk and ensuring that the cream
and chocolate are fully combined.

Leave to cool for 15-20
minutes. Whisk occasionally to thicken up the ganache.

Remove the tart base
from the fridge and pour the ganache into it.

Return to the fridge and
leave to firm up – once it is firm, wrap it in clingfilm (if you try and do
this straightaway you will get a mess and the clingfilm won’t pull away easily).

Sunday, 16 November 2014

Classics
become classics for a reason – usually because they’re great. There is
something about a tea loaf cake that is inherently nostalgic. I feel it
has always been in my life and I can clearly remember, from a young age, the
smell of it being toasted and buttered to have with a cup of tea on Sunday
afternoons. Back then I wasn’t a fan of it being toasted but I like it
now.

I
enjoy making any recipe where soaking of fruit is involved, be it an alcoholic
bath for Christmas cake fruits or – as in this instance – tea. Each time
I pass the bowl I cannot resist tinkering with it; carefully mixing the fruit
to ensure each sultana and raisin gets a chance to soak and absorb the
flavours. What is unusual in this recipe is that you add the sugar at
this stage too – I’d not seen that before. The only thing to be aware of
with this recipe is the soak time i.e. you need to start it a day before you
wish to make it. Other than that, it’s a doddle!

When
you spoon the cake into the tin it will seem like the mix is all fruit and no
cake. That’s often the way with these sort of bakes but don’t worry, the
magic of the oven will sort it all out and I promise you’ll end up with a
lovely tea loaf! Mine seems to have come
out huge (even by my standards) – not sure why!

If
you’ve read my blog for any length of time you will know my only rule for
buttering a slice of fruit loaf: the butter has to be thick enough that you
leave teeth marks in it when you take a bite. If your dentist couldn’t
identify you from the impression you have left in the slice of fruit loaf then
you need to reconsider your approach to buttering.

Sunday, 9 November 2014

This
sort of cake personifies the start of winter to me; it’s got lots of rich
flavours and warming spice. The dates taste like toffee and the gentle
hint of chocolate in the background adds depth to what could otherwise be just
another nice spiced sponge. It has the lightness of texture that you find
in really good sticky toffee puddings. Oh, and if you’re still not sold
it’s a doddle to make, smells divine whilst cooking and keeps for days thus, if
you were so minded, you could eat the whole thing yourself!

I
served the cake at room temperature but, if you omit the glaze, it would be
great served warm with custard for a winter pudding. I smiled when I
typed that because one thing I have realised being married to The Custard King
aka Mr CC is that pudding and custard is an all-seasons food!

This
cake just grew and grew – it came out enormous! There’s practically a whole
other cake in the huge dome!

I
know some people are wary at using the C word too early, but I think this could
easily be adapted to a Christmas cake for those who don’t want to go down the
traditional fruitcake path. You could go the easy route i.e. make it as I
have but plonk some plastic reindeer on top, or change the tin to a traybake
tin, increase the amount of icing and create a snow scene on top i.e. plonk
some plastic reindeer, trees and snowmen on top. You will notice from my
suggestions that I am not much of a cake decorator…..

Enough
stem ginger syrup to form a thick, glossy icing – add a teaspoon at a time

Method

Preheat
the oven to 160C/fan oven 140C/320F/gas mark 3.

Line
a 20cm round springform tin with baking paper.

Place
the dates, evaporated milk and dark brown sugar into a saucepan.

Bring
to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring regularly,
until the dates are soft and the sugar has melted – you can see this by looking
on the back of your spoon; if you can see any granules you need to cook for
longer.

Put
the pan to one side to cool.

Place
the flour, cocoa powder, ground ginger, bicarbonate of soda, stem ginger and
butter into a food processor and blitz until there are no lumps.

Add
the cooled date mixture and the eggs and blitz briefly just until the
ingredients are combined.

Pour
into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 1 hour – it may take longer –
or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Leave
to cool in the tin as initially the cake will be very soft.

De-tin
after about 30 minutes and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

When
the cake is cold you can add the glaze: use just enough stem ginger syrup to
turn the icing sugar into a thick white glossy glaze.

Sunday, 2 November 2014

I
used to work in an office where we got particularly nice biscuits in
meetings. I’m not saying the biscuits made us book more meetings
but……well, nope, I think that’s exactly what I’m saying! The prize on the
plate was always the cherry shortbread ring – it could make any meeting
palatable (it’s no coincidence it was shaped like a life saver). I’m sure
this golden snitch of a biscuit ensured punctual starts to meetings more than
any other reason; you could get to the meeting room 10 minutes early and would
rarely be the first one there!

Happy
memories of the cherry shortbread ring drifted into my head this week, probably
because I was sitting in a meeting room sans biscuits (I know – the
horror!). I decided to pay homage to this glorious biscuit and also
tackle what I call a ‘pressed’ shortbread, something that’s been on my to-bake
list for a while. This method is where you tip the dough crumbs into the
tin and then press it into shape, which
is where the real binding together of the ingredients takes place.

This
is an incredibly flavoursome biscuit given the small number of
ingredients. And who knew it would taste even better when eaten sitting
on the sofa, rather than around a meeting table? You learn something new
every day!

Sunday, 26 October 2014

I
remember watching Sesame Street when I was growing up and there would always be
a bit where the screen was split into quarters depicting four different things or
activities accompanied by a song, ‘one of these things is not like the
others’. You had to spot the odd one out. You can play that game
with the title of my cake this week: the correct answer is ‘potato’.

There
are German plum dumpling recipes that use a potato based mix to enclose the
plums but this is my first potato cake. With all that mashed potato in it
you expect it to be heavy or densely textured. It isn’t! It’s a
light sticky cake and it melts in your mouth. Enjoy it at room
temperature with a cup of tea (always my preferred option) or warm with ice
cream for dessert. Or get the best of both worlds by eating it at room
temperature and then warming the leftovers the next day for dessert.

The
ground almonds provide texture and the syrup gives a sticky, wet texture. The texture is unusual at first. After my first bite I wasn’t sure if this was
the cake for me however, once I got used to the texture I really enjoyed it. I have pondered how best to describe it and
struggled; I think the best way is to say that if you don’t like the following
then it’s not the cake for you:

Syrup
cakes

Baklava
(the stickiness of it)

Semolina
(the texture)

Really
– I’m not trying to put anyone off but this is not a cake for everyone and I
want you to bake it knowing what you’re going to get. Satisfied customers only on my site!

Using
gluten free baking powder will turn this into a gluten free bake.

Sunday, 19 October 2014

When
Tombo Tea kindly offered me a sample of their matcha
baking mix I was intrigued and also a little wary. I don’t like green tea
as a drink but, when I’ve tried it in bakes, have always enjoyed it. I pondered
how best to bake with matcha: it has a fresh, clean, almost grassy taste so
figured it would balance well with rich ingredients like chocolate and cream
cheese. These cupcakes were the result of my musings and I am extremely
pleased with them!

One
of my great joys in baking (I already know I’m overselling this) is when you
take a teaspoon of something, tip it out and it holds its shape. Look at this lovely ball of greenness:

I
loved how green the frosting turned out; one of the features of Tombo Tea’s
matcha baking mix is that it retains its green colour. It would be
perfect for any Halloween bakes but also all year as it’s a natural rather than
garish colour. I also enjoyed something being green but not minty – it’s
always interesting to see everyone’s expectations challenged; we get conditioned
that certain colours equal certain flavours so it’s nice to shake things up!

The
matcha cut through the very rich frosting; the balance between freshness and
richness was perfect and at that moment I became a convert to green tea!
The chocolate cupcakes didn’t benefit from the colour, but again the addition
of the matcha elevated these to something lighter and fresher than the usual
rich chocolate cake.

Definition
of sod’s law: the cupcake you pick to cut in half will always be the one you
tested during baking with the skewer.
Notice the little vertical line in the centre at the top?

Now
some eagle eyed readers will notice that the recipe makes 12 cupcakes but there
are only 11 in the tin. I have a two
word answer for you, my friends: cook’s perks.

Start
by making the sponges: beat together the butter and sugar until pale, light and
fluffy. Don’t skimp on this stage.

Beat
in the vanilla.

Beat
in the eggs, one at a time, adding some of the flour if it looks like it might
curdle. Use this as a learning opportunity – if it starts to curdle, you
need to beat the butter and sugar for longer next time.

Fold
in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, matcha powder.

If
necessary, add the milk to loosen the mixture to a dropping consistency (I
needed to use it).

Spoon
into the cupcake cases and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until a skewer
inserted into the sponges comes out clean.
Probably best to check the cupcakes after 20 minutes in case your oven
is quicker than mine.

Leave
to cool – out of the tin - on a wire rack.

Now
make the frosting: beat the butter until it is pale and whippy looking.

Sunday, 12 October 2014

I
am a terror for a gift shop, be it at a museum, gallery, stately home, or
anywhere really. They have always been utterly irresistible to me and I
will always come out clutching a bag of ‘treasure’ which you can be pretty sure
will contain, amongst other things, a fridge magnet or several fridge magnets
should I have found the choice too difficult to make. Luckily, Mr CC is
supportive of the purchase of tat (sometimes through gritted teeth, but mostly
with a good heart). However, during our visit to the stunning Audley End House last weekend, Mr CC had his sensible hat on and suggested that – given our
impending move – we limit ourselves to ‘edible items only’.

All
this explains why I chose to bake a honey cake this week; we bought a jar of
beautiful honey made by industrious Essex bees living and working in Saffron
Walden. I am funny with honey (rhyme not intended). I love it baked
into cakes or biscuits but do not like it at all on bread or toast. I
matched the honey sponge with a honey buttercream to allow the honey to be the
star of the show; it is often teamed with other flavours and gets a bit
lost. Poppy seeds always add lovely texture – little bursts of crunch,
and look so pretty when you cut a slice of cake.

This
was a very popular cake indeed; the soft sponge and silky sweet buttercream had
a vintage feel to them – the sort of cake that you’d see on an old fashioned
tea-time table. I kept the decoration simple with some wafer flowers; my
logic being that bees like flowers. I
added a layer of honey lime curd in the centre of the cake, but it was only to
justify the purchase of the pot of curd at my local town fair this weekend; the
cake was planned without this addition.

Footnote:
Limiting my purchases to edible items resulted in the purchase of: honey (good
– edible!), two bags of duck food (edible…if you’re a duck), a book (eating
paper won’t do you much harm, I suspect), a fridge magnet (not so edible), and
a horseshoe (have a dentist on standby if you try and bite into that).

Start
with making the sponge: beat together the butter and sugar until pale and well
combined.

Add
the honey and beat until fluffy and whipped looking – don’t skimp on this
stage.

Beat
in the eggs, one at a time, adding some flour if it looks like it might curdle.

Fold
in the flour, cornflour. poppy seeds and milk.

Spoon
into the prepared tins and level the surface.

Bake
for approximately 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the sponges comes
out clean. Mine took a bit longer - nearer 40 minutes. Cover the cake loosely with foil if it's browning too quickly.

Leave
to cool in the tins for about 15 minutes, before de-tinning and leaving to cool
completely on a wire rack.

The
sponges can be made a day in advance of assembling the cake – simply store in
airtight containers.

Now
make the buttercream: beat the butter until it is smooth and whippy.

Beat
in the icing sugar until the ingredients are well combined.

Add
the honey and beat, at a high speed, to lighten the buttercream and get lots of
air into it.

If
needed, add the milk to loosen the buttercream and give a nice spreadable
consistency.

Now
you can assemble the cake: place one sponge on the serving plate.

Spread
over some curd – if using.

Spread
just over half the buttercream over the sponge, placing the other sponge on
top.

Read my novel! Yes! I wrote it!

Look at this great website

Follow my ambitious attempt to find a recipe for a cake, biscuit, pie or tart for every single one of the 39 traditional English counties!

The Caked Crusader and Boy Wonder

Cartoon by Cakeyboi

About Me

So, the answer to the question you’re all asking: who am I? Well, a superhero never reveals their identity. I think it’s stated somewhere in the contract when you sign up for superhero-dom. Let’s just call me THE CAKED CRUSADER. By day (and night if I’m being honest) a mild-mannered City professional, but at weekends I become THE CAKED CRUSADER. Tirelessly fighting anti-cake propaganda and cake-related injustices – for SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, ALWAYS NEEDS CAKE (we’ll just skip over the fact that it’s usually me).

Batman’s got the batmobile, batcave etc. Superman does just great what with being able to fly and being really strong. Spiderman’s got that web thing going on. But I have better than them. For I have a credit card and could get one of these:

The purpose of my blog is simple – to spread the word that CAKE IS GOOD.Yes, it is calorific; that is why it tastes so nice.Yes, too much of it is bad for you; that’s what ‘too much’ means.Yes, we’re all told to eat healthily and we know that we should. But ask yourself this – and look very deeply into your soul before answering – when has a cup of tea and a carrot ever cheered you up? However, put that carrot into a cake and happiness will ensue. Quod erat demonstrandum – CAKE IS GOOD.

This site will catalogue cakes I have unleashed unto the world and my thoughts thereon.

By the way, I will never recommend how many portions you should get out of a cake because we’re all different. Plus, it will be very embarrassing when I say it serves 4 and you get 20 portions out of it.

WARNING: Too much time spent on this blog may cause hunger.

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Cake Achievement in Film and Television Arts (CAFTA)

Have you seen a cake in a film or tv show that deserves recognition? Has a cupcake upstaged a beefcake?

If so, please let me know and that cake could win a coveted CAFTA award. Email me your suggestions, with a photo of the cake if possible.

About Me

I am a 40-something Chartered Accountant working in the square mile.
My main hobbies at the moment are baking, and setting the world record for the number of cake tins owned by one person.
I spend far too much time watching Spongebob Squarepants and would love to try a Krabby Patty...I know, I know - it's not real.